The importance of the GMO.

Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMO's, are in nearly 80% of the foods in our grocery stores. That means that most of us are eating at least one GMO food a day. This is a problem.

But let's jump back a bit and start with a question: What are GMO's and why should we be worried about them? GMO's were first introduced in the 1990's as a means to increase crop growth and inhibit pest and insect degradation. Sounds good so far, right? Of course we would want to grow more foods at a faster rate while also decreasing the amount of loss due to bugs. Picture this, a scientist in a lab holding a single seed and needing to find a way to make that seed resistant to insects. So he injects the seed with pesticide, plants it in the ground and now the plant is a complete turn off to pests because it has been grown with the pesticide already inside the plant. Now imagine that plant is a soybean or kernel of corn. Now imagine that corn on your dinner plate. A delicious plate of pesticides.

Now let's talk about pesticides and what is in them. Aldicarb, paraquat, maneb, atrizine, and cyanide. Most likely, you have only heard of cyanide, or rat poison, and we all know the end result. Here are just a few known illnesses related to the use of the other pesticides listed; neurological problems including, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and epilepsy, nerve damage, loss of neurons in the brain, breast cancer, severe food allergies and ADHD. And those are just a few.

I mentioned two very specific crops earlier: corn and soy. The top two crops grown in the U.S. And nearly all are genetically engineered. Why? Because both corn and soy are extremely versatile and cheap to grow and process. Take a look at a box of cereal and you will most likely see both corn and soy listed in the ingredients. Which you can now be guaranteed that pesticide is an ingredient as well. Now take a look at any other boxed, canned and processed food label. Corn and/or soy, right? You may see things like, soy protein isolate, soy lecithin, high fructose corn syrup, and modified corn starch. All of these will not only contain pesticides but also have been highly processed to the point of being unrecognizable to their original plant form and are now simply a chemical derivative.

So what do we do about it now that we know about it? The easy answer is to buy organic foods and stop buying boxed and processed foods. But, we all know that we are tight on money and schedules and let's face it, organic is costlier and cooking absolutely everything from scratch is a full-time job. Now imagine you have the option of knowing which foods include GMO's. So when you want to buy a simple box of cereal, you know if you are getting a dose of cancer with it or the safe non-GMO ingredients. We have the power as voters and consumers to change the way our food is labeled. Washington state will soon be voting on Initiative-522, to require the labeling of GMO foods and ingredients. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has also just recently declared that GMO salmon can begin production. So now instead of fresh wild salmon, you will be fed farmed GMO salmon and not even have the option of knowing what it is or why.


Now that you know, what will you do?